Our Students
Graduate Students
Cynthia Lynn Beavin
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Cynthia is a PhD student in the Sociology department at the University of Cincinnati. She earned a BARSC degree from the University of South Carolina in 2017, focusing on global sexual and reproductive health and rights. Following graduation, they worked for the Guttmacher Institute as a research assistant, contributing to work on estimating global abortion and unintended pregnancy rates and qualitative analysis of barriers to SRH care for family planning patients in Iowa and Arizona. She currently serves as a research assistant within OPEN on the Abortion Clinic Closures and Care Churn project.
Their MA thesis explored how people conceptualize their pregnancy intentions through qualitative interviews and how these conceptualizations compared and contrasted with how the National Survey of Family Growth categorizes pregnancy intentions. Their other projects include a paper on how intention has becomed (bio)medicalized as a way to enforce social norms and a paper on how their experience as an abortion doula has improved their reserach interviewing skills.
Their current research interests include medical sociology, sociology of reproduction, and sociology of science, knowledge, and technology, with focuses in abortion and unintended pregnancy. Her dissertation project will be a genealogical study of unintended pregnancy using discourse analysis of expert-produced documents.
Cynthia has published in the Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health, BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Contraception: X, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved, and Qualitative Resarch in Health.
Their MA thesis explored how people conceptualize their pregnancy intentions through qualitative interviews and how these conceptualizations compared and contrasted with how the National Survey of Family Growth categorizes pregnancy intentions. Their other projects include a paper on how intention has becomed (bio)medicalized as a way to enforce social norms and a paper on how their experience as an abortion doula has improved their reserach interviewing skills.
Their current research interests include medical sociology, sociology of reproduction, and sociology of science, knowledge, and technology, with focuses in abortion and unintended pregnancy. Her dissertation project will be a genealogical study of unintended pregnancy using discourse analysis of expert-produced documents.
Cynthia has published in the Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health, BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Contraception: X, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved, and Qualitative Resarch in Health.
Miracle-Eunice Bolorunduro
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Miracle-Eunice is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Sociology department at the University of Cincinnati. Her academic journey began in Nigeria, where she earned a B.Sc. from the University of Ilorin and an M.Sc. in Sociology (Medical Sociology) from the University of Ibadan. Her research interests are sociology of body and embodiment, medical sociology, gender in African cultures and religion. Her scholarly work focuses on female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual health, and cultural constructions of the body, with a couple of peer-reviewed publications in international journals.
Aalap Bommaraju
Sociology
Bio:
A nationally recognized researcher studying US abortion and contraception policy, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju (they/them) examines how activists challenge race, gender, and class-based inequalities in access to reproductive healthcare within healthcare organizations, health policy institutions, and the broader culture.
Contact:
email: bommarap@ucmail.uc.edu
Recent Journal Articles:
Jeyifo, Megan, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju, and Qudsiyyah Shariyf. 2023. “Chicago Abortion Fund: Shaping Change: 99 Steps Towards Justice.” Portable Gray 6 (1): 70–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/725616
Zuniga, Carmela, Aalap Bommaraju, Lee Hasselbacher, Debra Stulberg, and Terri-Ann Thompson. 2022. “Provider and Community Stakeholder Perspectives of Expanding Medicaid Coverage of Abortion in Illinois.” BMC Health Services Research 22 (March): 413. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960679/
Hasselbacher, Lee, Carmela Zuniga, Aalap Bommaraju, Terri-Ann Thompson, and Debra Stulberg. 2021. “Lessons Learned: Illinois Providers’ Perspectives on Implementation of Medicaid Coverage for Abortion.” Contraception 103 (6): 414–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2021.02.008
Kim, Emily, Sachika Singh, Aalap Bommaraju, Alison H. Norris, and Danielle Bessett. 2021. “‘We Have to Respect That Option’: The Abortion Aversion Complex in Safety-Net Healthcare Organizations.” Social Science & Medicine 291 (December): 114468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114468
A nationally recognized researcher studying US abortion and contraception policy, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju (they/them) examines how activists challenge race, gender, and class-based inequalities in access to reproductive healthcare within healthcare organizations, health policy institutions, and the broader culture.
Contact:
email: bommarap@ucmail.uc.edu
Recent Journal Articles:
Jeyifo, Megan, Aalap Ooha Bommaraju, and Qudsiyyah Shariyf. 2023. “Chicago Abortion Fund: Shaping Change: 99 Steps Towards Justice.” Portable Gray 6 (1): 70–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/725616
Zuniga, Carmela, Aalap Bommaraju, Lee Hasselbacher, Debra Stulberg, and Terri-Ann Thompson. 2022. “Provider and Community Stakeholder Perspectives of Expanding Medicaid Coverage of Abortion in Illinois.” BMC Health Services Research 22 (March): 413. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960679/
Hasselbacher, Lee, Carmela Zuniga, Aalap Bommaraju, Terri-Ann Thompson, and Debra Stulberg. 2021. “Lessons Learned: Illinois Providers’ Perspectives on Implementation of Medicaid Coverage for Abortion.” Contraception 103 (6): 414–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2021.02.008
Kim, Emily, Sachika Singh, Aalap Bommaraju, Alison H. Norris, and Danielle Bessett. 2021. “‘We Have to Respect That Option’: The Abortion Aversion Complex in Safety-Net Healthcare Organizations.” Social Science & Medicine 291 (December): 114468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114468
Sarah Elizabeth Bostic
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Hi! My name is Sarah (They/Them) and I am a 5th year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. I am a research assistant with the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN) where I am currently working on a project that seeks to better understand Black women's experiences with reproductive health care.
I do qualitative research primarily in the realm of medical sociology and the body. Specifically, I seek to better understand the experiences of people with chronic illness, their interactions with medical providers, and how they navigate accessing the care they need. I am interested in their diagnostic journeys, development of cultural health capital, and how stigmas related to mental illness and body-size might shape these experiences.
Sarah Bostic's CV
I do qualitative research primarily in the realm of medical sociology and the body. Specifically, I seek to better understand the experiences of people with chronic illness, their interactions with medical providers, and how they navigate accessing the care they need. I am interested in their diagnostic journeys, development of cultural health capital, and how stigmas related to mental illness and body-size might shape these experiences.
Sarah Bostic's CV
Molly Rose Broscoe
Asst Professor - Visiting, Sociology
BA MUNTZ
Molly Broscoe is a PhD Student in the sociology department with research interests in social movements, mass violence, gender, and race. She earned her MA from UC Sociology in 2021, her thesis was titled: 'Who’s the Alpha Male Now, Bitches’: Masculinity Narratives in Mass Murder Manifestos. She is currently developing her dissertation on how the anti-abortion movement uses public space. She has been published with colleagues in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, the American Journal of Public Health, and the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. She is currently a teaching fellow at University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash.
Brianna Marie Cerbantec
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Brianna Cerbantec is a PhD student in the Sociology department at the University of Cincinnati. Brianna received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at UC in 2022. Her main research interests include spatial segregation, gentrification, and neighborhood poverty. She aims to comprehend the implications of redevelopment in local areas by analyzing the shift in media coverage. Her other sociological passions include the portrayal of women in a postfeminist society.
In her spare time, Brianna enjoys cooking, walking, and browsing film recommendations. Her name pronunciation is (bree-AH-nuh ser-VAN-tees).
In her spare time, Brianna enjoys cooking, walking, and browsing film recommendations. Her name pronunciation is (bree-AH-nuh ser-VAN-tees).
Mab Davoodifar
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Mab Davoodifar is a second year Ph.D. student in the department of sociology at University of Cincinnati. Her main research interests include medical sociology, immigrant women's reproductive decision-making, access to abortion and changes of fertility pattern.
Harold F Dawson
Instructor - Adjunct, Sociology
Crosley Tower
Harold earned his Bachelor’s Degrees in Psychology and Sociology from Marshall University. He graduated again from Marshall with a Master’s degree in Sociology, focusing his thesis research on the way in which critical social theories could be applied to Hollywood disaster films. Harold has earned his doctoral candidacy from the University of Cincinnati with a specialization in cultural sociology. He is currently working on a doctoral dissertation that will explore the complexities of televised news' visual reproduction of disaster.
Harold has presented his work at gatherings of the North Central Sociological Association. His current research interests include media, popular culture, social movements, sociological theory, and social stratification.
Harold has presented his work at gatherings of the North Central Sociological Association. His current research interests include media, popular culture, social movements, sociological theory, and social stratification.
Kate Durso
Asst Professor - Educator, Sociology
130.1 University Pavilion
Alexa J Friesen-Haarer
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
I am a second year PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. My scholarly interests include urban sociology, racial inequalities, and quantiative methods.
CV: https://alexafriesen-haarercv.tiiny.site
CV: https://alexafriesen-haarercv.tiiny.site
Kiki B. Higgins
Sociology
Kiki is a 3rd year PhD student in the Sociology department at the University of Cincinnati. They earned their Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a focus / minor in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Their current research interests deal with gender and sexuality in connection with dating and nonconventional relationships, specfically focusing on consensual non-monogamy.
Currently, Kiki is working to complete their research related to consensual monogamy (CNM): How CNM practitioners arrange and navigate their lives and relationships in a monogamous-centered society.
Kiki Higgins CV
Currently, Kiki is working to complete their research related to consensual monogamy (CNM): How CNM practitioners arrange and navigate their lives and relationships in a monogamous-centered society.
Kiki Higgins CV
Mario D Ignatov
Sociology
Mario Ignatov is a PhD student in Sociology. He obtained a Master’s degree in Turkic Studies from Sofia University, earned a Swiss DEA in European Studies from Geneva University and an M.A. in Political Science accompanied by a Graduate Certificate in Public Opinion and Survey Research from the University of Cincinnati.
Mario’s research interests include mesosociology, urban and health policies, social exclusion, migration, discrimination and quantitative analysis of secondary data. He presented professional papers at AAPOR’s 66th Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ and WPSA’s 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Mario also brings expertise in survey questionnaire design, cognitive interviewing and consumer marketing.
Mario’s research interests include mesosociology, urban and health policies, social exclusion, migration, discrimination and quantitative analysis of secondary data. He presented professional papers at AAPOR’s 66th Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ and WPSA’s 2011 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.
Mario also brings expertise in survey questionnaire design, cognitive interviewing and consumer marketing.
Anthonia Omotola Ishabiyi
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Anthonia Ishabiyi is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She is passionate about students' well-being and understanding the factors shaping their experiences. I am currently exploring the impact of religious participation on African International students in the US. To understand the role of religious organizations in facilitating social and academic development. I have worked and volunteered mostly in the education sector, specifically with minority groups in facilitating engagement and promoting cultural diversity. I also engage in cultural activities such as learning African drumming and dance for my overall wellbeing.
Spencer Dean Jarrett
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Spencer is a second year PhD student in the Department of Sociology.
His main areas of interest are work, technology, death, and the environment, focusing on how these impact the lives of rural people and communities. Currently, his research is geographically focused in Eastern Appalachian Ohio, where he grew up, and centers around family farming and off-farm occupations.
His main areas of interest are work, technology, death, and the environment, focusing on how these impact the lives of rural people and communities. Currently, his research is geographically focused in Eastern Appalachian Ohio, where he grew up, and centers around family farming and off-farm occupations.
Annie Katherine McGhee
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Annie McGhee is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Annie received her MA in Sociology from UC and her BS in Mathematics from Xavier University in 2019. She also received graduate certificates in Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies and Film & Media Studies from UC.
Her broad research interests include race and ethnicity, sex and gender, and cultural and media studies. She's particularly interested in the relationship between people's identities and social institutions.
Her dissertation focuses on how white people interpret depictions of people of color in the media. Drawing from in-depth individual and focus group interviews with approcimately 70 participants, she examines how these representations inform their understanding of race, including their own, and influence their racial attitudes and behaviors.
Her other current projects examine how video games are (re)produced and resisted as whitespaces, how audiences exclude women of color from participating in emerging fashion and beauty trends, and how people with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome understand their bodies, gender, and selves.
Annie McGhee CV
Her broad research interests include race and ethnicity, sex and gender, and cultural and media studies. She's particularly interested in the relationship between people's identities and social institutions.
Her dissertation focuses on how white people interpret depictions of people of color in the media. Drawing from in-depth individual and focus group interviews with approcimately 70 participants, she examines how these representations inform their understanding of race, including their own, and influence their racial attitudes and behaviors.
Her other current projects examine how video games are (re)produced and resisted as whitespaces, how audiences exclude women of color from participating in emerging fashion and beauty trends, and how people with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome understand their bodies, gender, and selves.
Annie McGhee CV
Laetitia Miron
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Laetitia is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She grew up in Montréal, Canada, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in sociology, criminology, and social work. She appreciates the perspective social work gave her to approach her research in medical sociology. Her research interests are centered around chronic illness, gender, and sexual assault.
Zoe Muzyczka
Sociology
Zoe Muzyczka (they/them) is a 3rd year PhD graduate student in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Their research interests and future dissertation work focus particularly around medicalization of fatness and anti-fat attitudes in medical settings, the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class with anti-fat attitudes in society and within fat liberation movements, as well as fat embodiment in public spaces and media. During their first two years in the program, they were a graduate research assistant for the research consortium Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN) where they worked with ongoing survey research projects regarding abortion patients experiences with care in Ohio. Now focusing on building their teaching pedagogy, they are a teaching assistant for Introduction of Sociology, and working on developing future courses related to their interest area of Fat Studies. In order to deepen their understanding of the inherent hetero-patriarchal, colonialisms underpinning the anti-Black attitudes that make up the core of anti-fat prejudice today, they are working on a Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a focus on Transnational Feminism of Color, Black Feminisms, and Queer scholarship. Not forgetting their public health training, they (along with 3 colleagues and the local organization Transgender Advocacy Council) were recently awarded the 2021 CCTST Academic-Community Partnership Student Award for their work with the co-developed community survey research project aimed at assessing the needs of the Transgender community in Cincinnati. Follow them on twitter @ZMuzyczka.
C. James Park
Instructor - Adjunct, Sociology
Crosley Tower
James received is BA from Albright College in Criminology and Political Science. He received his MA in Sociology from University of Cincinnati. His research interests are in political sociology, deviance and social control, criminology, culture and immigration.
Arti Sandhu
Associate Professor, Sociology
Aronoff Center
Arti Sandhu is currently an Associate Professor in the Fashion Program, in the School of Design at DAAP. Prior to this she taught at Columbia College Chicago and Massey University, New Zealand. Originally from India, she studied Fashion Design at N.I.F.T. (New Delhi) and received her Masters in Fashion and Textiles from Nottingham Trent University (U.K.).
Her research is centered on contemporary Indian fashion and related design culture. She is the author of Indian Fashion: Tradition, Innovation, Style (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). She has also published articles on dress and the Indian Diaspora in New Zealand, Indian Streetstyle, the contemporary Indian catwalk, and Indian drag queens. Arti is currently working on research projects relating to the growing discourse around decolonizing fashion studies, the role craft can play in fashioning sustainable design practices and overall well being, and a digital ethnography on social media saree groups.
In addition to her academic research, Arti's artworks, which explore identity and migration, have been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, the Netherlands, and India. In 2011 she curated the exhibition ZER0-Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned for the Averill and Bernard Leviton Gallery in Chicago featuring the groundbreaking work of designers and creatives working with sustainable fashion design strategies. Arti has also been the fashion contributor for Arts Illustrated magazine (Chennai) and occasionally writes for an online column for the digital fashion publication the Voice of Fashion.
Her research is centered on contemporary Indian fashion and related design culture. She is the author of Indian Fashion: Tradition, Innovation, Style (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). She has also published articles on dress and the Indian Diaspora in New Zealand, Indian Streetstyle, the contemporary Indian catwalk, and Indian drag queens. Arti is currently working on research projects relating to the growing discourse around decolonizing fashion studies, the role craft can play in fashioning sustainable design practices and overall well being, and a digital ethnography on social media saree groups.
In addition to her academic research, Arti's artworks, which explore identity and migration, have been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, the Netherlands, and India. In 2011 she curated the exhibition ZER0-Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned for the Averill and Bernard Leviton Gallery in Chicago featuring the groundbreaking work of designers and creatives working with sustainable fashion design strategies. Arti has also been the fashion contributor for Arts Illustrated magazine (Chennai) and occasionally writes for an online column for the digital fashion publication the Voice of Fashion.
Rachel A. Sebastian
Research Associate Child Policy Research Center Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center , Sociology
Rachel A. Sebastian is a researcher at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Child Policy Research Center and doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on inequality, child well-being, and child and family policy. Currently, she serves as an evaluator for a CHIPRA Quality Improvement Demonstration Grant in Colorado and New Mexico that seeks to improve screening services provided at school-based health centers and is conducting the 2011 Greater Cincinnati Child Well-Being Survey – a survey of primary caregivers used by local policy makers and researchers to assess the well-being and need of children in the region previously conducted in 2000 and 2005. Her dissertation involves a quantitative analysis of Lareau’s class-based parenting typologies using data from the National Household Education Surveys. Past research has included examining the experiences of homeless women and children in shelters, child care quality and evaluation systems, gender differences in sleep disruption, the effects of work schedules on marital satisfaction, and the racial composition of workgroups and ratings of job satisfaction, with recent publications appearing in Gender & Society and the American Sociological Review. She also teaches courses on race, class, and gender at Northern Kentucky University and the University of Cincinnati and represents Cincinnati Children’s Hospital on the Northern Kentucky Data Advisory Committee, a group providing guidance on the collection and use of child health and well-being data and measures.
Tya M Smith
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Tya (she/her) is a PhD student in the Sociology department at the University of Cincinnati. She received her BA in Political Science from The Ohio State University with minors in Sociology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Tya's research interests are race & gender, masculinities, political sociology, and digital sociology.
Brittany S Theodore
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Brittany earned a BA in Sociology with a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) from the University of Cincinnati. Now a first-year student in the dual PhD/MA program, they are pursuing a PhD in Sociology and an MA in WGSS. Their research, rooted in feminist and Marxist frameworks, engages questions of power and authority, examining how these forces are produced, maintained, resisted, and reimagined. They are particularly interested in biopower, with a focus on death, dying, and reproductive justice, and seek to investigate how social institutions govern bodies, life, and mortality. Brittany also explores the cultural and political functions of art, imagery, and social movements, exploring how they operate as both tools for social change and social control.
Kierra Nicole Toney
Asst Professor - Adj, Sociology
Kierra N. Toney is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She is originally from Chattanooga, TN the eldest of her living siblings and a first-generation college student. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2017 and her Master of Arts from University of Cincinnati in 2022, both in Sociology. Her master’s thesis is a qualitative exploration of Black student’s sense-making of high school American History Curricula. Her research interests include: Race and Racism, Urban Communities, Education, and Black Epistemologies. She previously served as a research assistant for the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network and an assistant editor for the academic journal Social Problems. Kierra identifies as a scholar-activist and hopes to use her research as tool to aid in equity and liberation for marginalized groups.
You can learn more about Kierra by visiting her website, KierraNToney.com .
You can learn more about Kierra by visiting her website, KierraNToney.com .
Taylor Rose Underwood
Graduate Assistant, Sociology
Taylor is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2022 and her Master of Arts in Sociology in 2023, both from the University of Indianapolis.
Her primary research interests lie in quantitatively exploring how geographic location influences individual outcomes and opportunities. Specifically, she is focused on examining how these outcomes differ across regions, across populations and within historically redlined neighborhoods.
Her primary research interests lie in quantitatively exploring how geographic location influences individual outcomes and opportunities. Specifically, she is focused on examining how these outcomes differ across regions, across populations and within historically redlined neighborhoods.
Marcus Christopher Vines
Instructor - Adj Ann, Sociology
Crosley Tower
Marcus Vines received his BA in sociology from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include gender, specifically masculinity, popular culture, sociology of the body, race, and class.
Janie Elizabeth Wagner
Sociology
Janie is a first-year master's student in sociology, bringing over eight years of professional experience in the product design field. A 2017 DAAP graduate of Communication Design, she has a background in UX and interaction design and has spent the last four years as a Senior User Experience Researcher.
Her professional experience includes conducting mainly qualitative, with light quantitative research for industries such as financial services, IT services, food retail, transporation, and entertainment. She is driven by a deep curiosity about the human-technology relationship and is excited to use her master's program to cultivate a sociological lens. Her current focus is on expanding her research methodology and exploring research opportunities focused on social impact.